


Heartland

by snoipahs



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, self indulgent as hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-06-25
Packaged: 2018-07-18 03:17:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7297303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snoipahs/pseuds/snoipahs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roxas laughed a little, and scratched the back of his neck. He couldn't possibly have looked terribly sane, loafing around outside in record-breaking heat with no shirt on while his beloved looked on in complete perplexion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartland

One hundred and twenty-two degrees fahrenheit.

Roxas could feel each and every degree searing his bare back as he crouched on the sidewalk and stared intently at his Cup O' Noodles sitting on the blacktop.

He stirred the bubbling yellow liquid with a plastic fork and scoffed to himself. He'd only been outside for a few minutes yet, and already the noodles were practically al-dente. 

"Roxas...?"

Her voice was distant. It came from inside their house. When he glanced back at the screen door and noticed he had accidentally left it open, he flinched slightly, and promptly stood up to close it.

But she beat him there. As soon as he rose to his full height, she was standing in the doorway with a quizzical expression on her face.

"There you are," Xion put a hand on her hip and cocked her head at him. "The hell are you doing out here?"

Roxas paused, and found himself entranced by the image of her just standing there. She was like a mirage, ten feet in front of his face, but with the balmy heat frying his every sense he really couldn't be sure what was real and what wasn't.

"...Cooking," he said, and the corner of his mouth twitched up into a little smirk. He absently stepped to the side and gestured at the tiny styrofoam cup at his feet. A thin layer of steam was actually wafting off of it.

"I see that," she giggled, rolling up to her toes to get a look at it, but not bothering to set foot outside. "But you do realize we have a stove inside, right? Even if you are hungry, we have better food than instant noodles, you know."

Roxas laughed a little, and scratched the back of his neck, seeming to realize himself. He couldn't possibly have looked terribly sane, loafing around outside in sweltering heat with no shirt on.

"I know..." he mumbled. "...I just wanted to feel it. It's the record, isn't it?"

"One degree off, actually." She leaned out the door and hooked her head to the side to check the thermometer, just to be sure.

"Damn..." Roxas blew a breath out his nostrils. "...Hey. I'm... sorry."

"…What?" Xion reeled at that, and an incredulous smile overcame her expression. "What are you sorry for? Just come inside--"

"Do you like living out here?" Roxas blurted. Suddenly, he was looking at her dead on.

"...Roxas?" she asked timidly, unsure if she had even heard him correctly.

"I mean it. Be honest."

Xion simply stared at him for a moment, and if it weren’t for the genuine gleam in his eye she might’ve outright laughed. Everything about this entire situation was a little too weird for a Sunday morning, from the plastic fork he held in his hand to the shirt he was missing and the desperate question he had posed from an entire world away, out there beneath the blistering sun while she stood in the shade and tried to understand why he would ever ask such a thing in the first place.

"...I do. It's peaceful. In an... intense way..." she mused, now speaking just as dreamily as he had been, so lost in thought. "Why? Don’t you like it?"

"You know I don't care where I am, as long as I'm with you..." Roxas said back without so much as thinking. His eyes were no longer on her, now, but far off to the distance. He sighed, and again scratched the back of his neck before he continued his aimless rambling.

"...It just occurred to me, just now, I never let you be honest with me about it. I mean, when we were living by the coast, you were so happy. It was beautiful and there was a lot to do and it was nice enough to watch the sunset outside, every night. But then I had to drag you out here, where it's nothing like that, and I just... had the thought, that you might've hated it, and were just saying you didn't mind to make me happy, to make it easier--"

"Don't you think I would have said something a long time ago if I did?" Xion cut him off. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and one of her eyebrows was raised with her smirk.

Her voice brought him back to reality. He tore his eyes from the mountains far off in the atmosphere and turned them back to her face, and when he saw it, he could not help but mirror her smile.

"...I guess that's true." Roxas chewed his lip after speaking, sure he’d said too much. The silence that follow lasted a few moments longer than he would have liked. Xion fell her head, and sighed lightly.

"...I do miss the coast,” she admitted, taking her turn to look somewhere far away. “It's still home to me. But I don't hate it here, not by a long shot. I like the plants, I like the mountains. Hell, I even like the heat. From a distance, at least."

To prove her point she stuck an arm outside and upturned her palm, like she was feeling for rain, yet instead only the sun’s brutal rays fell on her dark skin.

"The same goes for me, Romeo,” she added, rolling her eyes. “I really don't care where we are, long as we're together."

"That's good to hear, then..." His smile was ear to ear, now. Nonsensical, considering she was practically mocking him.

After he spoke, Xion decided she had enough of trying to stand how cute he looked.

"Roxas. Come inside,” she ordered. “Whatever's happening to that poor Cup O' Noodles is probably happening to your brain."

She flicked her wrist at his little experiment, and immediately he shot his gaze down to it. The yellow liquid was actually bubbling over onto the asphalt, now.

"Heh. Probably." He bent down to collect it, accidentally burning his hand in the process. After hissing a curse under his breath, he shuffled it to his free hand, then strode towards the trashcan by their back door.

Xion watched him wordlessly flick it open and drop it in, noticing he was careful enough to check for rattlesnakes in the shade the can cast before pushing it up to the house.

She cocked her head at that, and thought fleetingly he had taken so well to the desert in even the short while they had lived here. Even if he had lived by the coast for his whole life, just like her, the soul of this place suited him. The vibrance, the isolation, the dizzying extremes. A kind of heartland he was beyond lucky to find. She felt beyond lucky to watch him live in it, thrive in it.

Roxas was on the porch as soon as her little moment of contemplation was over, and now that he was so close she could clearly see the beads of clear sweat trickling down his forehead and collar. He loomed, then smiled down at her before kicking off his flip flops and stepping inside.

She moved to the side to allow him in, but as soon as he passed her she reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder, which halted him immediately. 

Before he could turn his head or open his mouth, she collapsed against his bare back, slipped her arms underneath his, and pressed the side of her face between his shoulder blades. Xion let out a little snort of derision, feeling the unpleasant sensation of his sticky, warm flesh against her own. However, Roxas, upon feeling how enchantingly cool her skin was, let out a choked groan of delight and actually urged her arms to hold him a little tighter.

"I’ll be with you, anywhere..." Xion murmured, squeezing him hard. "...As long as we have air conditioning."

Roxas chuckled lightly, then reached around to close the screen behind them.

“Deal.”


End file.
